Having both a sixteen year old brother and a sister-in-law, I’ve noticed how much more pressure school seems to be putting on kids today. It seems as though the goal is to cram more information in than the brain can possibly hold. At the same time, kids are surrounded with all sorts of ‘experience camps’ to improve skills and talents (basketball camp, math camp, astronomy camp, etc). The goal seems to be to fill every hour with something to do.
At the same time, we seem to have a generation of leisure junkies. While some kids hype up their college resumes, others spend an abysmal amount of time in front of the television or video games. There is a lot of play involved, and very little work.
Interestingly enough, parents with children in both ends of the spectrum have the same reason for not wanting their child to work. For one, “school is work,” and they don’t feel the child should have to do more. For the other, “let them be a kid,” they think that there will be plenty of time for a young adult to experience work.
President Kimball (you knew I’d get to him eventually) encourages children to work. In fact, he says, “We want you parents to create work for your children…Do not let them play all the time.” Now, we don’t want them to grow up to be workaholics, but they do need to learn a solid work ethic. They won’t just graduate college and know how to work. They have to be taught when they are young.
If you have small children, let them do chores. I say “let them” because my kids have begged to help since they were about two. Before that, they just helped (you know, throwing laundry all over the house). I gave my daughter her first chore when she was about three. She unloaded the silverware from the dishwasher. I actually started this because I was trying to teach her to sort like items, and since the silverware drawer is divided, it became a learning experience. Her next chore was similarly created – she had to set the table. I would say, “Dawn, get enough forks for everyone in the family to eat,” and she had to translate people to forks.
President Kimball tells us, “work is a spiritual necessity.” When we do not teach our children to work, when we make excuses for them, we are depriving them of spiritual growth. We are keeping them from their full potential. But when we teach them to work while they are young, they will develop habits of good work ethic that will last their entire lives. And they will then apply that ability to work to their spiritual life, and accomplish the tasks they need to, rather than putting them off as “too hard.”
For other articles on President Kimball’s lesson, click on the RS/EQ Lesson link at right.
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